The Only Jewish 'General' in Confederate Forces / SOLD

The Only Jewish 'General' in Confederate Forces - Inventory Number: CON 396 / SOLD

Confederate document dated December 30, 1862 on confederate states of America, quartermaster general’s office, stationary addressed to major general Samuel Jones

Myers was one of the few Southern Jews who pursued a military career. He was a graduate of West Point and served in the Seminole wars in Florida and the Mexican American War, where he was breveted for outstanding service under Generals Zachary Taylor and Winfield Scott.

Letter discusses the bridge over the Cowpasture River to be built by the central railroad company and suggesting an alternate route from Salem to Lewisburg to get supplies.

A. C. Myers quartermaster general. On 16 Mar 1861, Myers was appointed a lieutenant-colonel in the Confederate Quartermaster-General's Department. He was made the Confederacy's first acting quartermaster-general on 25 March 1861; the role was made official that December, with a promotion to colonel on 15 Feb 1862. After the Confederate capital moved from Montgomery, Alabama, to Richmond, Virginia, Myers' offices were made on the second floor of the building at the southwest corner of 9th and Main Street; his staff would eventually swell to 88 clerks—the largest office in the Confederacy's supply bureau. As president of the military board, Myers helped design the first Confederate Army uniform: "a blue flannel shirt, gray flannel pants, a red flannel undershirt, cotton drawers, wool socks, boots, and a cap."

As quartermaster-general, Myers was hampered by insufficient funds, the failure of the Confederate States dollar, and the poor railroads in the South; the Confederate States Army was never adequately supplied by Myers, especially regarding clothing and shoes. By the 1930s, it was determined that while Myers had been very skilled at accountancy, he could not think outside his US training and experience nor could he rise above "the laxity, carelessness, and inefficiency of remote subordinates".

Inventory Number: CON 396 / SOLD